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Fighting crime through innovation in the field of speaker identification focus of expert meeting hosted by INTERPOL

LYON, France – Developing a Privacy by Design solution in voice biometrics to combat all forms of transnational crime was the focus of the first Speaker Identification Integrated Project (SIIP) meeting hosted by INTERPOL.

SIIP could play a crucial role in identifying criminals and terrorists using telecommunications and Internet-based applications, as well as in collecting judicially admissible evidence. Funded by the European Union, SIIP is a large-scale multi-disciplinary research project coordinated by Verint Systems Ltd. In total, 17 partners from law enforcement, academia and industry are collaborating on the project.

Some 40 experts from 19 countries met at the INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters for the two-day (10 and 11 June) meeting to discuss a range of issues including user requirements and technical specifications, with a strong emphasis on legal and social-ethical safeguards.

“The involvement of INTERPOL in looking to the future of speaker identification technology signals great awareness to tackle both the needs of law enforcement to ensure worldwide security, and the respect of legal safeguards including data protection and privacy aspects,” said Joël Sollier, INTERPOL’s General Counsel.

Project coordinator Gideon Hazzani, Director of New Business Technologies for Verint Systems Ltd., said SIIP could enable law enforcement agencies to overcome two main challenges they face today.

“It could be useful in cases where criminals create fake identities when they use telecommunication and Internet devices to prevent the lawful interception and tracking of their criminal activities by police services,” said Mr Hazzani.

“SIIP could also assist in identifying unknown participants in a lawfully intercepted call of a known suspect,” he added.

Potential areas for advancement in the future include the development of an Information Sharing System based on privacy and data protection-enhancing procedures which could benefit all 190 INTERPOL member countries in the speaker identification field.